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US 4,967,545 AGranted
Harvesting apparatus for leafy vegetables
AssigneeDalgety Produce, Inc.
InventorsRich Fischer, Michael T. Jones
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mobile harvester of leafy produce has two harvesting sections with a cutter located forwardly for severing the produce from the ground. A continuous belt having a large number of openings moves in a closed path presenting an upwardly facing surface. A low pressure plenum underneath the belt provides a vacuum attraction to the belt upwardly facing for picking up severed produce. An enclosure ove the belt protects against wind removal of produce leaves from the belt. The two harvesting sections are individually adjustable for proper height above the ground.
Claims7
Apparatus for harvesting leafy produce, comprising:
- a wheeled frame for ground based movement having a front end, a rear end and sides, said frame carrying first and second harvesting sections, each section including,
- cutter means mounted on the front end of the frame for severing produce from the ground;
- a belt arranged in a closed loop and presenting an upwardly directed surface extending from a point just rearward of the cutter means to a point farthest to the rear, said belt on reaching the point farthest to the rear reverses its direction on the loop presenting its outer surface downwardly from the point farthest to the rear until the point just rearward of the cutter means, said belt having a large number of openings uniformly distributed over the belt surface;
- side walls located adjacent the belt loop forming a plenum with the belt upwardly directed surface;
- fan means mounted under the belt upwardly directed surface for removing air from the plenum and forming a vacuum region adjacent the belt upwardly directed surface;
- and
- drive means interconnected to the fan means and belt.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.